Microsoft is cutting the price on its Surface 2 just a month after cuts to the prices of its Surface Pro 2.

The Surface 2 runs the much-mocked Windows 8 RT operating system and Redmond is lopping $100 off the price.

This means that a 32GB Surface 2 will set you back $349 and the 64GB version will cost $449. If you want the 64GB version with 4G LTE connectivity will have to pay $579. The discounts will be available at Microsoft’s shops and online.

However you will have to be in quick if you really want one. Redmond said that the price stands until September 27. Optimistically it has warned that customers are limited to a total of 5 discounted Surface tablets per purchase.

Word on the street is that the price cut could be because Microsoft is planning to discontinue the model and wants to get rid of its overstock. It could also mean that Microsoft is preparing to unveil a successor to the Surface 2.

The Surface 2 that’s being discounted was introduced last October. The only change to this device has been the addition of a 4G LTE version.

Another suggestion is that Microsoft is getting excited about the HP Stream 14, which is a $99 laptop which might be an inexpensive answer to Chromebook while running a full version of Windows 8.1. It might be that Microsoft just does not see a need for anything like a surface 2 any more.

Microsoft has done rather well in a viral story which pitched its Surface 2 against the iPad.

The story is simple. A 12 year-old girl wanted to buy an iPad mini and nagged her dad. The dad was worried about letting his kid join a cult at that age, everyone knows that an iPad mini leads to harder Apple toys and the next thing you know you are mortgaging your house to buy an upgrade.

Obviously if the iPad mini was a better product than the Father would have to give in. So what he did was he wrote to Microsoft and Samsung about his daughter’s plans to buy an iPad – challenging both companies to offer reasons why they shouldn’t go ahead with the iPad purchase.

Samsung shut up, but Redmond seeing the PR value, took the challenge much to the surprise of the girl and her father. Needless to say the much photographed but unidentified girl went for the Surface 2. The whole story has been detailed by Microsoft in a blog entry here, while there is also a rather cute video to check out too showing the whole thing.

We leave it up to our readers to work out if the story is PR spin or real, it seems to be true though. Face it who would chose an iPad mini over a Surface 2 anyway. (Oh Lord. Ed)

Nvidia got a decent design win, at least when it comes to its modem business. Its first big winner is no other than Microsoft with Surface 2 64GB for AT&T. This is the official name of the product that just became directly from Microsoft.

This 64GB, Tegra 4 powered tablet comes with an Icera 500 Nvidia modem that is capable of 4G on AT&T's network and in the rest of the world should work as a 3G solution. This is at least possible in case that your carrier frequencies are supported. The chances that they are supported are good.

The $130 premium is the same amount Apple charges for its LTE iPads and of course you will have to setup AT&T data account in order to use the modem. Other than the added LTE support, there is not much that sets it apart from 64GB non-LTE version. The 4G LTE version is late to the party, but Windows RT lovers that enjoy the fact that their ARM-based processor can run free Outlook can now enjoy 4G as well.

This is a significant and first major design win for Nvidia's Icera 500 modem but we don’t think that either of these two partners will sell millions of units. It is just a nice proof of concept that both companies can offer 4G LTE product in their portfolio. Let's hope that there will be more of this LTE as from where we stand, Qualcomm wireless LTE business needs some serious competition as it completely rules the USA and rest of the world.

Delta has scrapped a plan to give its pilots iPads in favour of Microsoft’s Surface 2. The airline ran an Electronic Flight Bag pilot program with iPads back in 2011 but scrapped the plan.

Now Delta was going to replace the iPad with Nokia's rumored tablet, but has opted for the Surface 2 instead. The airline has equipped flight attendants with Lumia 820 handsets, which will be used for processing payments and tracking passenger information.

But the issue here was that Delta needed a reliable cockpit device, so the fact that it dumped the iPad for the Surface 2 running RT is probably important.

Although the Surface RT was hardly a big hit for Microsoft, with US $900 million write-down, Microsoft clearly did not give up on Windows RT and the newely announced 10.1-inch Surface 2 successor is thiner, lighter, faster, equipped with Tegra 4 SoC and has a 1920x1080 resolution screen.

As we wrote earlier, the Surface 2 is powered by Nvidia's Tegra 4 SoC which makes it, according to Microsoft, three to four times faster than the original Surface RT. It also got a better 5-megapixel rear and 3.5-megapixel front cameras, both capable of doing 1080p video as well as USB 3.0 port. The new Surface 2 also got the new Kickstand 2 which has a dual-angle adjustment and, according to Microsoft, has 25 percent more battery life.

As expected, it runs on Windows 8.1 RT and will be available in 32 and 64GB configurations as well as white (silver) and black color options. The price starts at US $449 for the 32GB model while the 64GB one will be sold for US $549. Both will be available on 22nd of October on 22 "big markets" including Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the UK, and the USA.

Although we already wrote a while back that Microsoft's next Surface 2 will be based on Nvidia's Tegra 4 SoC, the recent appearance in GFXBench's results page confirms the information. Scheduled to be released sometimes this year, Microsoft's Surface 2 tablet will be running on the Windows 8.1 RT OS.

In addition to the Nvidia Tegra 4 SoC, the result page also shed some light on some other specifications, including a 1371x771 resolution screen. There has been some rumors regarding a full HD tablet that will be powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon 800 chipset as well as smaller 7-inch Surface, which could be the one that showed up in GFXBench results considering its "lower" resolution.

Of course there are still a lot of unknowns but good news, for Nvidia at least, is that we will see at least some devices based on the Tegra 4 SoC as it did not have a smooth ride so far.

While Microsoft is trying to calm down its hardware partners over its new Surface, it appears that there is another one in the works.

Redmond has been saying that it does not want to get into the hardware business and has been describing its Surface mostly as a reference design. But an advert here shows that Microsoft is planning more versions of the Surface.

A listing for a Senior Software Development Engineer reads, "We are currently building the next generation and Surface needs you! The Surface development team is seeking a talented senior engineer to work on our next generation Surface. "You will be responsible for overall system design and system bring-up/enablement. You will be a critical member of a team that includes firmware, electrical, software, design validation and mechanical engineers; together, you will bring next generation Surface to life."

The words clearly give the game away. There is a next generation surface in the works and Redmond is hiring more staff for it. It looks like the Surface might not be just a reference design after all, but might be the beginning of something which will really get Acer and its ilk cross.